Do Not Disturb
by Giratina
Summary: There's been a strange happening around Radiant Garden lately, and Kairi, being the sort of kindergartener who liked to get things done, has convinced herself that she's going to investigate. Now if only she could convince the phantom on the garden wall.


_But wait, there's more... yes, as most of you are aware, I've been flooding the Kingdom Hearts section lately with various things. So here's more of it.  
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_- Gira  
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63. DO NOT DISTURB —** There he was.

Now, Kairi thought she was pretty smart for a six-year-old. She could properly draw a clock, with all the numbers in the right place and everything, and she could tell what time it was, too. She could make elaborate castles out of paper and tape, which none of her friends could do. She even (kinda) knew her way around Radiant Garden, making her the official navigator of her group of friends when walking home from school.

So there she was, being the navigator, when she saw something funny. "Hey, guys," she said, pointing. "Does anyone know who that is?"

"No," said Rolie.

"Nuh-uh," said Michelle.

Fuu shook her head.

The 'that' in question was someone sitting on a wall. The wall was one of those short ones, on the open part of the castle grounds where people walked through all the time. It was too far away to say much more than he was sitting sideways on the wall and dressed in white.

The walking path alongside that wall was just as good as the one Kairi and company were on.

"Weird," said Michelle, and the group moved on.

—

Rolie had sworn that she could be the navigator, but only after Kairi had explained her motives to all of them. It had been a whole week, and every day the person in white had been sitting there, hunched over something none of them could make out. Kairi wanted to talk to him. The others admitted that they wanted to but wouldn't, and praised Kairi for her bravery.

So they split that day, but Kairi said that they could join up again right after.

"Hi," said Kairi to the person in white. Though his back was to her, she could see now that he had gray hair, and the all-white clothing was actually just a long white coat; she could see he was wearing jeans, since he had folded his legs so that his knees stuck out over the sides. Or maybe it was just that ginormous book.

She received no response.

"Hello…?" Kairi ventured again, walking up alongside him. She noticed with a jump that one eye was covered by his bangs, and the other eye was trained on her. Kairi knew by now two things about this person: A., he was really creepy, and B., he wasn't much bigger than Kairi herself.

This time, his mouth moved, but no sound came out.

"Oh, okay…" And Kairi ran off to rejoin her friends, unaware that his eye was trained on her the entire time.

—

The next day, she asked if she could go and see him again. She had been scared yesterday, which made her act rude — and you weren't supposed to act rude around people. Grandma said so. So Kairi decided she would go back and apologize.

This time, she stopped in front of him. She put an arm on the wall (it was cold) and made sure to focus on his face. Just like yesterday, it was bent as if he was looking at the book in his lap, but the single gray eye was still staring at her with the sort of gaze that even she could tell wasn't a nice one. Kairi smiled back at him, and said, "Hi again."

He looked at her for quite a while, but eventually, he did another one of those soundless words and returned to his book. Kairi had been ready this time, but even she could barely make out the word that had come out of his mouth: "…Hello…" Maybe it hadn't happened. Maybe Kairi's mind had just said that so she could get a feeling from it. But this encouraged her, and she charged on in her valiant attempt to get a competent sentence out of him.

"Sorry about yesterday," Kairi said.

Silence. He didn't even move his mouth this time. After a long moment, he returned to his book, apparently finding that more interesting than talking to Kairi. Well, alrighty then.

"Bye," Kairi said, and left.

—

Two days later, after school, she was back. "Hi."

This time he nodded faintly. This was apparently meant to acknowledge Kairi's existence, and at her current rate, Kairi guessed she could let it slip for now. During school today she had decided that she would make a little game out of it, trying to get to know this boy. She figured she should start with remembering what he looked like, so she began looking at him more intently, and almost immediately she noticed that he was reading a different book. Wow. The first one had been big - Kairi didn't think she could ever read one like that - and he had been halfway done with it. Could he have really read that much in two days?

"So… how are you?" she asked. Grandma said that you were supposed to say that when you met people.

He glanced up at her from his book, moved his head as a form of response, and then ducked down again to continue reading. He didn't appear to be intent on looking up again.

"Sorry I didn't see you yesterday." Kairi said. "I was at a sleepover, so I went home with Michelle." She paused. "…Michelle is my friend."

He didn't respond, but did turn the page of his book, a little more forcefully than he intended to. There was a small ripping noise, and both of them noticed the small tear spawned in the paper. His gaze seemed to intensify for a second, but it was gone before Kairi could look up and get a good look. Kairi looked away and saw her friends watching, so she excused herself.

"Bye."

—

The day after that was Saturday. He wasn't there.

—

The day after that was Sunday. He wasn't there.

—

Monday's classes came and went, and to Kairi's relief, Book Boy (as her friends had taken to calling him) was back on his spot on the garden wall. But something was wrong - he looked tired, like he hadn't gotten enough sleep, and there were funny stains on his white coat that Kairi was pretty sure weren't there before.

"Are you okay?" she asked.

He flipped the page. There was no book today, just a number of looseleaf papers that he was reading just as intently as he had been with his previous reading material. Kairi noticed that the papers were attached to one another with a metal ring, which she found odd - everyone knows that you were supposed to attach papers together by punching a hole in them and typing pretty purple ribbon through.

"You look tired," she said helpfully. The boy nodded slightly.

"Can I help?" He shook his head.

"Oh." Kairi looked concerned. "Well… tell me if you do, okay?" No response.

—

He looked better on Tuesday, Kairi saw when she approached. Her friends had gotten used to her visiting Book Boy, and they thought that 'Book Boy' was as good a name as any for the one who always had something to read and nothing to say. So she decided to just keep calling him that - not out loud, of course. That would be mean.

"Hi," said Kairi.

Book Boy nodded.

"You look better today," Kairi said.

He flipped a page of his book. Again, it was a new one. Kairi wondered just how good at reading this boy was, and that brought up another question.

"Whose class are you?"

He looked up at her, looking just slightly confused.

"Whose class? In school?"

Book Boy shook his head. Seeing the confusion on Kairi's face, he elaborated, and with this Kairi nearly broke into a wild grin. "…I… don't…"

Her 'wild grin' idea went away real fast.

"What? You don't? You don't go to school? But… people are supposed to do that! And! And! Um… you're so smart! How are you smart if you don't…" Kairi paused. Book Boy looked ready to talk again. This was clearly reason for silence.

"…I… don't go to school…" he said uncertainly, in that hardly-comprehensible mutter of his. "…but… that doesn't mean… I don't learn…"

Kairi puzzled over that for the rest of the day.

—

By Wednesday afternoon he had achieved a fourth book, and Kairi thought it was high time to get to know what he occupied all his time with.

"What are you reading?" she asked brightly.

He flipped the book to its cover, keeping one finger on the page had been on, and silently displayed the book to Kairi. The cover, and the words on it, were unfamiliar to Kairi.

"…What's it about?"

Book boy cracked it open again. "…It's fictional…" he said softly. "…The author… goes on tangents… much more than he ought to…" This was apparently Book Boy's form of answer. Kairi had to admit to herself that she didn't know what words like 'fictional' and 'tangents' meant, so she resolved to ask Grandma later.

"Oh," said Kairi in the meantime. "Um… that's it?"

He nodded.

"Well… what's it called?"

"…The Phantom of the Opera."

Kairi added 'phantom' and 'opera' to her list.

—

When Kairi found him on Thursday, he wasn't reading. Instead, he held a pencil and notepad, and appeared to be drawing in it… but only numbers. Weird.

"What are you doing?" asked Kairi.

"…Mathematics…" he said.

"What's… what's that?" Book Boy looked up at her funny.

There was some hesitation before he spoke. "Well…" he began, somewhat uncertain. "…most people… they call it 'math'…"

"Oh!" proclaimed Kairi. "You're doing math! So…" She looked at his paper again. She was distressed to find that absolutely none of it made sense, not even the few pictures. "So… what's that?" she asked, pointing to a symbol with two crossed lines. "Is that an X?" Book Boy looked at her funny again.

"…No…" he said softly. "…that's a… an addition symbol…" Kairi's face looked just as blank as it had been. "…it means… you add things…?"

Kairi stared in dawning comprehension. She knew about adding… kinda. "That's putting stuff together, right?" she asked, staring even more at the addition symbol, despite the fact that it wasn't even that interesting.

He nodded and drew in more symbols on the paper, far away from the addition sign. Kairi looked at the latest symbol, and turned her head sideways. "Um," she said. "You drew your, uh, eight wrong. The circles are supposed to be on top of one another, not side to side."

"That is not an eight…"

—

"So," said Kairi on Friday. "You come every day?"

Book Boy nodded. He was still doing math today, and Kairi still didn't understand most of it. She looked around, as if searching for something she wasn't quite sure was there. "So… where do you live?"

"…Nearby…"

Kairi thought for a second. "So… here?"

"On the grounds…" he elaborated.

"…of the _castle_?" Kairi gasped, sitting on the wall and making it quite clear that she wanted to hear more about this fascinating development. "So… so your family works for Mr. Ansem?"

He hesitated for a second, and then nodded.

Kairi looked very excited by this; she knew who Ansem was, of course. Everyone knew who Ansem was. Even people new to the area (and new to the world) knew who Ansem was. Every beggar and street-wandering school slacker knew who Ansem was, and they also knew that knowing him - even if through someone else - was a great honor. He was practically the mayor of the place.

"Wow," said Kairi. "Have you ever met Ansem?"

He nodded.

Kairi took a few minutes to think about this, and then came to a conclusion. Book Boy was really lucky.

"So," the girl said after her little silence. "Um. What do your parents do? With Ansem?" He immediately scratched in more numbers to his notepad. Kairi asked again. "Your parents. What do they do?" More scratching, hastier this time. She remained oblivious, but tried a different approach anyway. "Okay… forget the jobs. Where are they? Like, do they know you're out here?"

He continued scribbling rapidly. She peered at his work.

"Um," she said uncertainly, "I think… when you have the cross thingy, numbers are supposed to get bigger, not smaller…"

—

The day after that was Saturday. He wasn't there.

—

The day after that was Sunday. He wasn't there.

—

The day after that was Monday. He wasn't there.


End file.
